Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lemon Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Boil sugar and water together for 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Add lemon extract and lemon juice.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and, dissolved in water, gives the sauce its body and syrupy texture.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity and bright, fresh citrus flavor that balances the sweetness.
- Lemon extract
- Adds concentrated lemon aroma that reinforces the flavor of the fresh juice.
The step that matters
Add lemon extract and lemon juice after cooling. Heat drives off volatile aromatic compounds, so adding the lemon extract and juice once the syrup has cooled slightly helps keep the lemon aroma and fresh flavor in the finished sauce.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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